The Freestyle competition at the US Open concluded last night, and there were some fun matches, upsets, and whatever else you could think of. The one guy that everyone had their eyes on was none other than Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson.
Steveson had not wrestled a freestyle match since his 2021 Olympic finals with Geno Petriashvili where he pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in wrestling history scoring a last second takedown to secure Olympic gold.
He wrestled 4 matches en route to winning the US Open and outscored his opponents 44-1 winning by technical superiority over all of his opponents.
Gable’s Stats From The Open:
R16: Gable Steveson VSU Malcolm Allen 10-0 0:57
QF: Gable Steveson VSU Wyatt Hendrickson 12-0 2:09
SF: Gable Steveson VSU1 Mason Parris 12-1 3:19
Finals: Gable Steveson VSU Nick Gwiazdowski 10-0 4:11
The Field
Wyatt Hendrickson became a NCAA All-American this year placing third at the national tournament. He and Steveson met at the 2021 NCAA tournament where Steveson would win by tech fall 18-2. This match would be no different with Gable showing off his dominance against an exceptional athlete in Hendrickson.
Mason Parris was the heavyweight national champion this year in Steveson’s absence. He and Steveson have met numerous times in the past with Steveson getting the better of Parris in every single meeting. With Parris winning the Hodge trophy this past season there was a lot of talk that Parris had possibly closed the gap, Steveson shut down those thoughts immediately putting on a takedown clinic.
In the finals, Gable faced a familiar opponent in Nick Gwiazdowski. Gwiz is the guy that held the 125kg spot for Team USA until Steveson came along. Gwiz beat Steveson for the world team spot in 2019, Gable would grow past Gwiz and dominate him in the finals of the Tokyo Olympic trials. Gwiazdowski is a 2x world medalist picking up bronze at the 2017 and 2018 world championships.
Final X
With Steveson booking his ticket to Final X, his opponent has not been decided yet. He will most likely see Nick Gwiazdowski if all things go as they should.
Hayden Zillmer is still in the unknown as to whether or not he will be competing so the real question is has Parris gotten good enough to get past Gwiazdowski or will we see Gable and Gwiz run it back in the best of 3.
